What’s in the name: SA-SAMS?
The South African School Administration and Management System otherwise known as SA-SAMS, is an integrated electronic application that is supplied free of charge to schools by the Department of Basic Education. It is primarily aimed at supporting schools in managing their day-to-day operations, administration and reporting.
Why is SA-SAMS critical for schools’ data?
SA-SAMS captures multiple data (e.g. school information, learner, parent and educators’ profiles, timetables, finance information, curriculum data, mark schedules etc.) for administration and reporting requirements.
Since this data is entered at source – which is at schools – it reduces chances of duplication in reporting since this data is accessed from a single point by national, province and district levels.
It also provides standardisation in data and reporting format across schools to circuits, districts and province.
Finally, any data residing in SA-SAMS can easily be accessed, mined, organized and analysed in any required format for the purposes of developing reports for district, provincial and national spheres.
Who handles SA-SAMS data at schools?
There are three critical role-players who input SA-SAMS data at school level. These are educators, school administrator, and the school management team (otherwise know as the Principal, Deputy and the Head of Departments).
School administrators regularly capture important data (such as enrollment information and the school’s profile) on SA-SAMS. Educators work with school administrators to regularly record data such as learner marks, attendance, disciplinary cases, curriculum data, etc.
Finally, the senior management team (SMT) is responsible for verifications and data approval as and when required by circuit, district or provincial authorities. In addition, they can print comprehensive reports which contribute to decision-making for the management of the school.
How will SA-SAMS Modernisation help with data-driven education?
While the current SA-SAMS is rich in functionality, there are areas where DBE has identified a need to improve and enhance the current SA-SAMS. Critical to these improvements is migrating SA-SAMS to a new and modern web-based technology platform.
The modernised system will be an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that uses the latest technology. The system’s simple and intuitive functions will drive effective and efficient running of schools through streamlined and optimizer processes and enable good quality data to be captured for teaching and learning.
It will also enhance the usability of the user functions, validate data and submit information timeously, for use by various levels of users – from schools to districts to provinces to make quick interventions to improve learning outcomes.
In closing as per the opening lines of the Minister of Education Angie Motshega in TALIS Report South Africa 2018 Country Note “as we are moving swiftly into the 6th Administration, we want to realise the elements of a ‘new dawn’ for teachers underpinned by a merger of collaboration and accountability within an enabling policy climate (pg. 2).
Improving the quality of SA-SAMS, and subsequently the South African Basic Education, will require a collaborative approach and all hands-on deck.
(Kindly note that the process for Request for Bid Bids for the “Supply, implement, maintain and support a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) innovative solution to replace the current South African School Administration and Management System (SA-SAMS) to the DBE, North West Provincial Education Department, and Free State Provincial Education Department will commence soon. Kindly check national newspapers and e-tender portal).